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Original poster

£52 to put together a chest of drawers - ripped of or reasonable?

213 replies

Fedup2311 · 07/03/2023 18:33

chest of drawers from Argos - 5 drawers. Had for 3 months, husband said will take him 3/4 hours to put together and doesn’t have time. I hired a professional to put together and he did in 2 hours and charged me £52. Is this reasonable? I feel worried as DH will be home soon and will say I’ve been a mug as the chest of drawers only cost us £85.

OP posts:
MinnieGirl · 08/03/2023 09:25

He’s a lazy git who has had three months to put it together and couldn’t be bothered. And if he gets angry I would remind him of that… presumably you bought a chest of drawers for storage not to sit in bits?
Its a reasonable charge and you needed it done.
If he does get angry tell him you hope he’s learnt his lesson, and next time you won’t be waiting three months before you book someone.

OneTC · 08/03/2023 09:25

Horrible sounding husband aside but why are people saying you can work out how much the job should cost by working out the hourly rates of the person that didn't do it.

That's the daftest thing I ever heard.

So someone who earns 150k a year should never put cheap furniture together because that's bad value when you could spend money getting someone who only earns 30k a year to come and do it for cheaper?!

Jesus Fucking Christ 😅

Mamamia7962 · 08/03/2023 09:27

Queenofthewild - I completely agree. I wonder how many of the posters on here sneering at the OP pay someone to do their ironing or clean their oven ( a job I happily pay someone else to do).

We all have certain jobs around the house that we hate doing or don't have time to do.

MouldWatch · 08/03/2023 09:28

I'd pay that. No way could I do it myself. I just can't be dealing with DIY and construction of things, even with instructions. It's absolutely infuriating and stressful. It was hard enough when ex was here doing it together, let alone on my own. Never

coffeecupsandwaxmelts · 08/03/2023 09:29

Rainbowshit · 08/03/2023 08:57

Why didn't you do it yourself? My daughter assembled her own flat pack furniture when she was about 11. It's not a hard thing to do.

Maybe she didn't want to.
Maybe she has a disability and can't do it.
Maybe she struggles moving heavy items for whatever reason.

Does it matter?

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 08/03/2023 09:29

The amount of people asking for a medical explanation as well

Are people doing that? I think it's a natural thing to ask, when OP simply says that she had to pay a handyman because her DH wouldn't do it, why she couldn't consider doing it herself. It wouldn't have been unreasonable for her to mention in the OP if she's a wheelchair user, blind, has arthritis etc. - or even just to say "I am unable to do it myself". You can't just expect people to guess the important information.

MouldWatch · 08/03/2023 09:32

All this "Why didn't you do it?", I hope you lot do every single chore and job in your home and never outsource anything ever.

Ted27 · 08/03/2023 09:32

Can you all just lay off criticising this woman for not doing it herself.

I’ve put plenty of flat pack stuff together over the years, quite frankly not very well and I hate doing it.
now I have a bit more money available I pay a handy man to do a lot of jobs round the house I used to do myself.

I have enough to do and it helps if someone does some of it, regardless of whether its something I could have done myself

jannier · 08/03/2023 09:33

Fedup2311 · 07/03/2023 18:38

The guys rate was £26 an hour. Was cheaper than the others I found such as £50 an hour and one even wanted £80 an hour! I just feel it’s so much money and DH could easily have saved us this money. I feel he’s going to get really angry when he comes home.

Was there a reason you couldn't do it....I'd have done it and told him I'd paid someone if I felt he was just ducking it.

loudbatperson · 08/03/2023 09:35

£26 an hour to cover his overheads (fuel, tools, insurance, advertising, accountants etc.) and his actual labour, doesn't seem a lot to me.

dottiedodah · 08/03/2023 09:36

Its another reason to buy second hand .Gumtree ,or our local Heart Foundation Store have excellent buys and BHF are getting much needed funds .Often a better quality ,cheap and no faff with assembly .Whats not to like?

percypercypercy · 08/03/2023 09:36

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 08/03/2023 09:29

The amount of people asking for a medical explanation as well

Are people doing that? I think it's a natural thing to ask, when OP simply says that she had to pay a handyman because her DH wouldn't do it, why she couldn't consider doing it herself. It wouldn't have been unreasonable for her to mention in the OP if she's a wheelchair user, blind, has arthritis etc. - or even just to say "I am unable to do it myself". You can't just expect people to guess the important information.

It's asking for an explanation. Expecting OP to reply and give information as to why she didn't do it. It's goady and it's absolutely looking for a medical explanation.

People are so rude. And to come back and suggest people are justified in questioning OP is even worse.

percypercypercy · 08/03/2023 09:38

Posted too soon.

Nobody had to guess 'the important information' because knowing why OP didn't do it has fuck all to do with whether the cost was reasonable or not.

And your example of OP possible explanation just serves to provide those questions are absolutely looking for a medical explanation. Fuck that.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 08/03/2023 09:38

All this "Why didn't you do it?", I hope you lot do every single chore and job in your home and never outsource anything ever.

But the OP was all about the cost of outsourcing it and not the choice to do so.

Say somebody chooses to have a cleaner, people won't criticise, even though most people do their own cleaning themselves; but if they then start quibbling about the (fairly market-standard) amount that they're expected to pay the cleaner - with the justification being the fact that plenty of people can/do do it themselves - that's when it starts being unreasonable.

Do it yourself and pay nothing - fine.

Get somebody else in to do it and willingly pay them the going rate - fine.

Be of the opinion that you aren't willing to do it yourself but that a professional doing it for you is taking advantage by expecting to be paid a fair amount - not fine.

Mamamia7962 · 08/03/2023 09:39

jannier - Maybe she just didn't want to do it, that's a good enough reason isn't it?

mumto2teenagers · 08/03/2023 09:42

How is DH's hourly rate relevant? Surely he would be doing it in his spare time anyway so is not losing 4 hours pay for doing it. Your hourly rate is what you get during your working hours, not every hour of your life.

AlisonDonut · 08/03/2023 09:45

ArcticSkewer · 08/03/2023 08:59

Weird how this was a man job

It isn't a man job. I do all the flat pack stuff, if and when we buy it, in our house.

The problem is that the OP didn't do it, her partner didn't do it and so somone needed to do it so she paid for it. If she didn't think the quote was a cost effective solution she didn't have to engage the services of doing it.

ApiratesaysYarrr · 08/03/2023 09:47

OneTC · 08/03/2023 09:25

Horrible sounding husband aside but why are people saying you can work out how much the job should cost by working out the hourly rates of the person that didn't do it.

That's the daftest thing I ever heard.

So someone who earns 150k a year should never put cheap furniture together because that's bad value when you could spend money getting someone who only earns 30k a year to come and do it for cheaper?!

Jesus Fucking Christ 😅

Actually that argument has merit. If you earn a high hourly rate, then it's reasonable to throw money at something to make your life easier, because it's likely that you value your time more than money. I can paint a room, or I could watch a youtube on olaying down lino in the bathroom and follow it, but I'd rather pay someone to do it, because they will come with the tools, and do it faster (and to a higher standard) than I could. If they take the same amount of time as me, but are paid a lower hourly rate, then I'm still financially better off.

This is why I have my oven professionally cleaned, because I hate doing it, and it's more valuable to me to have someone do it, and spare my time and hassle.

GoodChat · 08/03/2023 09:48

Mamamia7962 · 08/03/2023 09:00

There's some really rude posters on here. Not everyone enjoys putting flat pack furniture together, not everyone has the time to do it.

If you buy ready assembled furniture you've still paid for someone else to put it together which is why it's more expensive.

If you've got time to find a handy man and then sit around while he puts your flat pack furniture together, you've got time to put your flat pack furniture together.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 08/03/2023 09:50

Nobody had to guess 'the important information' because knowing why OP didn't do it has fuck all to do with whether the cost was reasonable or not.

And your example of OP possible explanation just serves to provide those questions are absolutely looking for a medical explanation. Fuck that.

If you read my comment, you will see that I clearly said she could just have said "I am unable to do it myself".

The OP was not a simple 'is this a fair price to pay for this job?' but it was tied in with her husband's unwillingness to do it, leaving her no option but to pay somebody.

If this was a male OP saying "My wife refuses to iron my work shirts, but she objects to me using our joint money to pay another woman market rates to do it for me" every single post would be asking "Why can't you iron your own shirts?" - with lots of angry swearing; or at the very least "And is there a reason why you can't do it yourself?"

Ted27 · 08/03/2023 09:53

@GoodChat

did she say she was sitting around whilst he did it?

Last summer I paid someone to clean and paint my windowsills. Its something I usually do myself every year, not exactly a skilled job but time consuming.
Whilst he did that I got on with working at my job.

Rainbowshit · 08/03/2023 09:53

We're asking why the OP didn't do it because she said that her DH could have saved the money by doing it himself. The obvious question is why just her DH? Why couldn't the OP have done it herself and saved the money? Why is it just a task that falls to her DH?

ApiratesaysYarrr · 08/03/2023 09:54

Flamingogirl08 · 07/03/2023 18:42

Is that how much people pay for this service? I might need DH to have this as a side job. He's a dab hand at flat-pack 🤣

He should go onto Taskrabbit - I just checked and in my locale people are charging from £28ph to assemble a chest of drawers.

GoodChat · 08/03/2023 09:55

Ted27 · 08/03/2023 09:53

@GoodChat

did she say she was sitting around whilst he did it?

Last summer I paid someone to clean and paint my windowsills. Its something I usually do myself every year, not exactly a skilled job but time consuming.
Whilst he did that I got on with working at my job.

Did she say she didn't? She was there to let him in and when he finished and was home before her husband. Maybe she was working from home, but then why would she be worried about the cost?

Who knows.

percypercypercy · 08/03/2023 09:56

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

If you read my comment, you will see that I clearly said she could just have said "I am unable to do it myself".

I didn't read your comment, you also clearly said...

It wouldn't have been unreasonable for her to mention in the OP if she's a wheelchair user, blind, has arthritis etc.

Which is what I was talking about.